You’ve most likely heard the big buzz about inbound marketing – and you want in. You want to be more aggressive with leveraging your content to optimize opportunities. You realize buying email lists and positioning online ads just isn’t cutting it anymore. You are ready to attract inbound traffic.
Congratulations! So now what?
Inbound marketing is a strategy and it’s one that requires a cross-platform approach to diverse forms of marketing, traditional and digital. Inbound marketing is a bit SEO (search engine optimization), a bit analytics, a bit content marketing and a huge chunk of perseverance. Inbound marketing is any content-driven endeavor that attracts visitors to your website and, most critically, converts visitors to leads – turning visitors into customers.
Inbound marketing is content generation with a focus on thought leadership, influencer outreach and organic visibility. Inbound marketing is powered by creativity and deployed with diplomacy.
The reality is, inbound marketing – the use of blogging, social media, strategic keywords, optimized landing pages, custom content and sharp calls to action – is invaluable in today’s marketing campaigns.
If you are blogging consistently, you are doing inbound marketing. If you are publishing white papers and offering them on your website asking only a visitor’s name and email, you are doing inbound marketing. If you are actively engaged in social media marketing and the consistent creation of videos, podcasts and webinars, you are an inbound marketer – maybe.
The key to inbound marketing success is leveraging the right content for your ideal audience. If your clients are interested in the latest trends in cloud computing, publish a white paper. If your customers are interested in responsive websites, offer a download that is a blueprint on the topic. If clients are hungry for the latest on trends in automating business operations, publish scores of content to bring them up to speed.
Content, designed for your customers, will champion any inbound marketing campaign.
How To Convert Visitors To Customers
Blogging
Inbound marketing is nothing without blogging. A blog is the most elemental, and successful, vehicle to deploy in your quest to be an inbound marketing superstar.
Create a blog that speaks to the needs and wants of your customers and make sure the content is original, creative, educational, entertaining and informative.
You control your blog – make it count. If you blog consistently, and hit topics that appeal to your client base, you are creating opportunities.
Publish & Promote
Publishing white papers and informative marketing-driven pieces shows your clients that you want to convey in-depth information. Featuring these publishing elements on your website, along with serious calls to action, seals the deal.
Tags such as Register for Webinar, Download Today, Join Our Newsletter, Click Here, Request A Demo and more are welcome statements in the push to convert prospects to clients.
Keep your calls to action enticing and position them obviously on landing pages, forums, blogs or any platform reflecting your publishing power.
Email Marketing
All that great content you are publishing deserves to get noticed. Generate inbound results by providing existing clients with email updates showcasing your content and the dedicated links to access the content in detail.
One email could revitalize a stagnant client relationship, creating a new opportunity to serve a client that may have fallen off the radar. Perhaps a client did business with you two years ago. With the project completed, you and the client drifted apart.
Reaching out with branded, substantial content may wash that adrift client back to you, encouraging them to revisit your website, review your new services and perhaps even realize they could use your products or expertise once more.
Buying Photo via Shutterstock
Nicholas Waite
Wow I really found a lot of value within this post! I feel that most of my traffic is inbound, and it has helped my blog maintain traffic and relevancy! Most of my blog traffic comes from people that are on my email list, so I definitely understand the concept of inbound marketing. Great post!
When it comes to promotion on social networks like Facebook or LinkedIn, you should consider sponsoring the post so that it is seen by a broader audience. Facebook is particularly affordable and organic distribution continues to decline. So if you’re producing great content don’t let it languish in oblivion.
Shekenya Harris
Great read! Another way you can convert visitors into customers is to keep an eye on stats. Know your numbers. Learn what your customers want. Learn what they are responding to. Lastly, know who’s your visitors. You can find that in your stats.
Aira Bongco
Blogging has always been an effective medium to introduce yourself to your target market. It is also a good way to keep on feeding your market with relevant information and establishing yourself as an expert in the field.
Martin Lindeskog
Could you list some companies that have been good at converting visitors to customer by using the three content strategies (blogging, publish & promote, and email marketing)?
James Wang
Loved this. Definitely the 3 pillars of content marketing. Having blogging, outreach and webinars drive email marketing and list growth is the engine of all good content marketing strategies. I agree with you on the perseverence. A lot of people get all excited about how great the concept sounds, but then peter out after a few emails. I’ll definitely be sharing this!
Great post Chris! We can relate to clients coming back adrift after a long hiatus. Where do they go? Not always sure. In the end, it’s all about showing them why content is so important, and why they will always need it!